


Red Moon/Akatsuki

by matrixrefugee



Category: Twilight, Yami No Matsuei
Genre: Gen, General, Horror, Supernatural - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2009-12-28
Updated: 2009-12-28
Packaged: 2017-10-05 10:11:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matrixrefugee/pseuds/matrixrefugee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a medical breakthrough emerges in a Japanese lab, the Cullen clan travels to Kyoto to take part in the discovery; but this brings Bella and Edward into the paths of both a pair of shinigami and the most dangerous entity they will ever encounter...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Kyoto

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yami no Matsuei, aka Descendants of Darkness, it's characters, concepts and other indicia, which are the intellectual property of Yoko Matsushita, Hiroko Tokita, Manga Entertainment, Viz Media, et al. I do not own the _Twilight _series, its characters, concepts and other indicia, which are the intellectual property of Stephanie Meyers, Summit Entertainment, et al: I'm just borrowing them, though given the propensities of some of the YnM cast (or one character in particular), I have no guarantees on the condition they'll be in when I put them back where I found them… I don't own the "silver-grey haired old gentleman in his forties"; if he's who I think he is, he belongs to Hideaki Anno, Project Eva-Gainax/khara. I also don't own the synthetic blood substitute created in Japan: that was devised by Charlaine Harris in her Southern Vampire/Sookie Stackhouse novels, aka "TrueBlood"
> 
> AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'd better start with a warning: I am contra-Twilight. I find the books badly written to the point of being painful, and I also think they put out a bad message to impressionable young girls, that it's okay to stay with an emotionally abusive and possessive man who stalks you obsessively, and that it's okay to be so emotionally dependant on someone that you go into self-destruct mode if you're separated from them, but that's a whole other rant. However, I'm past the "Kill it with fire!" stage of despising it. I honestly think that the concepts behind the plot and the characters are good, but I don't think Stephanie Meyers handled the material as well as she could have. Just my two cents (or whatever it is in Yen). Also, this fic is working towards two character deaths, and one of them a messy one at that. One of the fandoms I based this crossover on features just about the most diabolic villain/antagonist I have ever seen in anime (so far, at least), and let's say he gets off on… working over his victims in detail.
> 
> That said… I'm a relative newcomer to Yami no Matsuei, aka Descendants of Darkness: I utterly love the anime and I recently started reading the manga (here's hoping Vol. 12 is released soon). The bit in Vol. 1 where the main villain of (eventually) several story arcs is described as being vampire-like set the gears turning in my head and I couldn't resist seeing what would happen if a certain sparkly-skinned vampire were to cross paths with him. But I didn't want to write the usual "X from Y introduces Edward to Mr. Pointy" fic which tends to be written by Antis and Contras; I can promise you this much: this fic is going to be a well-developed story with a fitting explanation as to what happens (there again, this involves a guy who doesn't need a whole lot of motivation for killing people…). And given the fact that elements from two other fandoms show up, this is probably an AU/Elsewhen of sorts, but if I had to place it anywhere, I'd have to say it's roughly about the beginning of Breaking Dawn (if Bella hadn't gotten pregnant right away); not sure where to fit in the YnM timeline, which has a dream-like quality about it to begin with (at least in the manga continuity).
> 
> * * *

Red Moon/_Akatsuki_

By "Matrix Refugee"

"_The reason vampires have been hated and feared since the distant past is because they live by eating other humans." -- Tsuzuki, __**"Yami no Matsuei (Descendants of Darkness)" **__Vol. 1_

Chapter One: Kyoto

I feared death for a long time, and I seem to be a magnet for dangerous creatures. I had grown up thinking that death was something dark and painful and frightening. But even after I'd lived among vampires for as long as I had, I never guessed that death could wear a handsome face or that it could come sweetly. I suppose I should have guessed it, since I had at one time expected to die at Edward's hands, but I didn't expect where and when it came from. I expected to someday die in Edward's arms, whether it was the death of being turned into a vampire, as he drained away my life, or if he left me to age and fade as a normal, unturned human. I never expected it would end in a land of flaming red maples and strange twisted trees.

Edward and I had just returned to the Cullens' house in Forks, after our honeymoon in Brazil. I wished we could have spent an eternity on the Isle of Esme, but when Carlisle got the news, he had contacted us, asking us to return to Forks soon. I was looking forward to going to college with Edward, but fate or destiny or whatever had other ideas, as I would soon find out.

"An old friend of mine in Japan has invited me to join him on a biochemical project at a research university in Kyoto," Carlisle announced, when the family -- my new family -- had gathered around the rarely-used dining room table. "An old friend of mine, Dr. Daisuke Yamada and some colleagues of his have been working for some years on creating a synthetically derived blood substitute, and they're close to creating one that is virtually identical to human blood."

"So what does this have to do with us?" Emmett asked, skeptically.

"Let him speak, I think I know where this is going," Alice put in, smiling with anticipation.

Carlisle smiled. "You're very close to what I was about say, Alice, and I admit, I was a little skeptical myself. The main aim of this study is to create a blood substitute to be used in surgery, especially in poorer nations which may not have a lot of blood donors, or during natural disasters where there have been a lot of injured and relief workers may not have access to a steady supply of donor blood. It seems some of the researchers in the metaphysical biology department have suggested that this blood substitute might enable vampires to feed without having to hunt anything. The Volturi have notified me and told me they want me to look into it, though of course they don't share my optimism about the project; this is where we come into the study. Dr. Yamada and I agree that we'd make a good test group for the first trials."

"So when do we leave?" Edward asked.

"As soon as we can pack and close up the house: we could be away for a while, the blood substitute is still in the experimental stage, and this could take two or three trials before they find the right blend of chemicals," Carlisle said.

"But what about Edward and I going to Dartmouth?" I said. As important as this study was, so was my education and as embarrassed as I was to be attending an Ivy League school when I hadn't really earned the privilege, I was not about to pass it up.

"I've arranged for you to continue your studies over the Internet; a lot of schools are doing that these days," Carlisle said.

"And if we're away long enough, maybe you can transfer to a college there," Alice said.

"But… I don't speak Japanese," I objected.

"I do, I can teach it to you," Edward said.

"When did you learn that?" I asked. I got the feeling that as well as I knew Edward, he would continue to surprise me with his capabilities, and not just the ones that related to being a vampire.

He shrugged one shoulder. "When you're ninety years old and you don't need to sleep, you have a lot of time on your hands," he said.

While Esme and Carlisle started going over the preparations they would have to make, I excused myself and headed to the room which Edward and I now shared, pretending I was starting to pack. That was only one reason: I needed to hide the confusion and concern I was feeling.

Jasper must have sensed something was up; someone tapped at the door. "I'm busy, um, really busy," I called out, as I started going through my recently filled wardrobe, trying to decide what to take. What was the climate even like there?

The door opened anyway and Edward entered. "Bella, you went off in such a hurry, we didn't get a chance to tell you what you'd need to pack, though I'll leave that between you and Alice.," he said.

"I just had to step away for a moment," I said.

"It's more than that," he said, looking me in the eye.

I sighed. Guilty as charged. "All right, I understand this means a lot to Carlisle and to the rest of the family, but what about us? We were going to college. Besides," I fingered his collar. "You haven't fulfilled your promise to me." He had told me he would wait two or three weeks before he made me into what he was, and I had every intention of holding him to that promise.

He took my hands in his. "You heard what Carlisle said: this could change everything for us, for all vampires who are willing to nourish themselves on a blood substitute so that they no longer need to hunt or hurt anyone. I want to wait a little while longer, till they come up with something that works. I don't want you to be newly turned and mad with thirst, waiting for the scientists to get their formula just right."

I sighed. "All right, I guess I can hold out that long. I just hope they don't take too long. I don't want to age any more on you."

He gave me a small smile. "Knowing the team that Carlisle is working with, it won't take them too long. This is one of the most prestigious research institutes in the world: they're close to finding what we need, and with our help, they can complete their work."

"With your help," I murmured.

"You might not be what I am yet, but we're in this together," he said, with a fierce reassurance.

* * *

_ **A week and a half later…** _

_In matters relating to the world of the dead, there is an institution that judges the sins of the dead, the Ministry of Hades. The Summons Section of the Judgment Bureau comprises a group supporting the ministry's operating functions by guiding the lost souls that wander the mortal world. They are also known as the Shinigami, or the Guardians of Death…_

An autumn day on the grounds of the Ministry's headquarters. The cherry trees that surrounded the grand buildings bloomed as they did all year, but the lawn below had started to take on a yellow-brown tinge in between the drifts of fallen petals. Asato Tsuzuki, one of the Shinigami assigned to the Kyushuu region, had stepped out for a breath of the fresh, crisp air and to enjoy a cup of tea on a small terrace. This time of year, with the earth preparing to go to sleep -- even in this mirror image cast by the spirit realm -- always left him feeling nostalgic for old faces and past loved ones, but he had to take care to avoid the darker memories that came with it and the shadowed corners in his psyche. He tried to avoid one especially dark corner in which the image of a steely pair of eyes lurked, waiting for him to acknowledge their presence, but the same old feelings of mingled revulsion and acquiescence came back to haunt him.

Someone cleared their throat behind him and he jolted, nearly splatting his tea. He turned to find Seiichiro Tatsumi, the secretary of the Summons Section and Chief Konoe's second in command, though some suspected this younger Shinigami was the real head of the department.

"Oh, Tatsumi, I didn't hear you at first," Tsuzuki said, trying not to sputter in embarrassment.

"Having a moment's reflection out here? It's a season that invites one to pause and look back on what has passed behind us," Tatsumi mused. Coming back to the present, he added. "Just don't get too wrapped up in your thoughts, you're needed inside: we've just had a new case sent our way."

"We've had a call come in from the Seattle office," Tatsumi said, once the team had gathered in Chief Konoe's office. "There's a name that's been on their list for two years now, but they wanted us to look into it, since the person has recently arrived in Japan."

"Two years? That's a bit long," Chief Konoe said, the lines on his brow deepening.

"The person in question made a half-hearted suicide attempt by diving off a cliff into the water, near Forks, Washington," Tatsumi continued, holding up a file folder. "They've sent some of her records to us to give us some background on her. It seems she was imitating some local Native American boys who've made a sport out of diving off the cliffs; at that time she'd recently broken up with her boyfriend of several months and she was suffering a deep depression that left her barely functioning as a human being."

"One reason I'm glad I didn't live long enough to fall in love," Hisoka murmured, leaning back in his chair, his arms folded on his chest.

"Aw, don't slam it unless you've been there and had your heart broken," Tsuzuki teased. "Besides, just because you're in the afterlife, doesn't mean you don't have a second chance." He gave Hisoka a fond look, though the younger Shinigami coolly ignored it. That was to be expected: though they had grown closer and the bond between them had deepened, Tsuzuki knew they would likely never be more than friends: the trauma and the curse that had lead to Hisoka's death had left the younger man too deeply scarred to consider anything more than a deep friendship, but it was a friendship that brought him a sense of balance and harmony.

Tatsumi caught the look in Tsuzuki's eyes and cleared his throat, forcing Tsuzuki to refocus. "Are you still with us, Tsuzuki?"

"Oh, yes, sorry," Tsuzuki said, snapping back to reality.

Tatsumi laid the file folder open on the table. "Her name is Isabella Swan, now known as Bella Cullen since she was recently married. Her husband's adopted father is a medical doctor who was recently invited to join a research team at Shion University in Kyoto.

"There is one thing that makes this case unusual: the Count tells us that her candle in the Hall of Candles has been flickering and guttering since her name appeared on the Seattle office's list," Tatsumi continued.

"What could that mean?" Hisoka asked. "Is she sick?" A flicker of a painful memory ticked across his face, then passed, leaving his usual calm sang froid behind. Tsuzuki felt a twinge of empathy dart through his heart: he knew the cause for that pain memory and the man behind it.

"Possibly: there could be any number of things that could be disrupting her life force: illness, a demon or a psychic predator of some kind," Tatsumi said. "Because Watari is still… tied up trying to reverse the results of from his latest ..experiment, we need someone covering District ."

"Tsuzuki, that means you and Hisoka will have to cover this case," Chief Konoe announced.

"Ooh, the fall foliage should be peaking about now; we can get some sightseeing in," Tsuzuki cried, perking up and clasping his hands.

"Once you find out what's going on with Miss Cullen," Chief Konoe put in. "This is a delicate case, not so much because of the life involved, but because we're dealing with a foreign office: we have our reputation to maintain, and the Seattle office, like a lot of the offices in the United States, is known for their meticulousness. I need you two to keep focused and find out exactly what is going on with this girl. If there is something affecting her life force, we need you to protect her from it."

"So basically we're like detectives hired to follow a girl who's being stalked," Hisoka observed.

"Hey, maybe she's good-looking in person," Tsuzuki said, dropping a wink at Hisoka.

"She is young, but she's also married," Tatsumi added, adjusting his eyeglasses.

"There's no rule saying two young people can't appreciate each other's looks," Tsuzuki said.

"Ugh, you sound like an old matchmaker," Hisoka groused.

"Don't forget, we're still keeping you on a tight budget: I've located a small inn with reasonable rates," Tatsumi said, handing Tsuzuki a card bearing the name and address of the establishment. "We'll be sending along the Gushoshin to help you stay in contact with us."

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Hisoka said, his eye on the file.

"What? The hotel? I'm sure it'll be clean and tidy for us," Tsuzuki said.

"Not that, Tsuzuki, I mean this girl. I can't put a name to it, but something isn't right about any of this," Hisoka said, half closing his eyes in thought.

"You'll just have to find that out," Tatsumi said with a smile of encouragement.

* * *

We settled into Kyoto fairly quickly: Esme had friends who had moved there a few years ago, who helped us find a place to live. Then it was just a matter of packing what we'd need and flying to Japan. We unpacked and the apartment set up in just a day, which is just as well since I'd gotten several emails from Dartmouth about my delays in getting started in my online coursework.

Studying over the Internet had its good points and its bad ones. At least I didn't have to go to class and compete with other students who'd had higher SAT scores than I did, but I missed seeing faces other than the Cullens'. And it wasn't like I was able to make a lot of friends in our neighborhood, since most of them didn't speak much English, and I didn't speak any Japanese.

It got worse when Carlisle brought us to some part of the university called the Institute for Frontier Medicine one day for a presentation the scientists were giving to the students: at least part of the lecture on the study was in English, but it went completely over my head. Carlisle introduced us to one of the scientists, a silvery-grey haired old gentleman in his forties named Fuyutsuki (I think that's how it was spelled) who was in the metaphysical biology department and his assistant, a very pretty brunette with green eyes who was young enough to be his daughter, who tried to patiently explain to me how it would work, but the communication barrier got in the way again. I don't just mean their English wasn't great -- they actually spoke it very well -- but I only just barely passed regular old biology, never mind metaphysical biology which seemed to have something to do with the biology of the soul and supernatural entities. That doesn't really make sense, but I put it off as some weird science thing. I felt jealous when Edward chatted up a storm with them, but then again, he's had the time to learn about stuff like this.

And then it turned out they had a delay in getting to the next phase in the project, since one of the main guys on it had a medical practice in Tokyo which he couldn't leave just yet till he had arranged for someone to take his place; I suggested to Carlisle that they could always start without him, but he told us that wouldn't be possible since the guy was also helping fund some of the research, so they couldn't exactly move on without him. In the meantime, Edward and his family would have to go hunting. At least there were fairly dense wooded areas nearby, particularly around the shrines or whatever they were; that provided them some cover for their hunts. Emmett was pleased to find out there were Asian Black Bears he could hunt; they might not be quite the challenge that an angry grizzly offered, but it inspired Jasper to make jokes about Emmett being adventurous and trying "Asian cuisine". For all the mountains and hills, there weren't any mountain lions, so Edward had to make do with foxes.

Shopping was a hassle: at least Alice knew enough Japanese that we managed to get what we needed when she got me to go out with her. The whole matter of dollars to Yen made my head spin. And then there was the food: at least Alice found some places that sold recognizable American food so I could cook for myself, but getting lunch if I went out was a hassle: how much rice do they use in Japan? Don't get me started on sushi: Alice raved about it as if she'd actually tried it at some point, but you couldn't pay me enough to try eating anything with raw fish and seaweed in it. I couldn't help hoping the scientists got this project going and soon: I didn't think I was going to last for long in this strange country

* * *

Oriya, the keeper of one of Kyoto's oldest traditional restaurants, only knew her as Inari, though he suspected it was not her real name; she came to Kokakuru at least once a week since, as with many of his clients, she had tastes she could indulge only in the secrecy his establishment afforded in its carefully concealed private rooms, given her public status as a fairly well-known model in Tokyo. Here, in Kyoto, she could be her true self, she had once told him, and while Oriya would not let it on to anyone, he knew there was more than one meaning to her statement: as she sat in one of the public rooms, he had seen her shadow on the wall move and change its shape, which could only mean she was not entirely human.

She generally came once a week, as regularly as the moon cycles, but that one week in September, she abruptly missed her usual assignation. He had assumed she had had a busier than usual schedule, but then she arrived, three days later. Her pale face looked haggard, her long, blue-black hair seemed to have lost some of its sheen, and her yellow eyes looked hollow with sorrow; she even ordered a second bottle of sake, which was something she rarely did.

"Is something troubling you, Inari-san?" Oriya asked, approaching her table.

She looked up from her empty glass, her eyes glittering. "I would tell you, Oriya-sama, but can I trust you to keep my words between us and only between us?"

Oriya seated himself across the table from her. "Of course I can, I have been called the keeper of secrets."

She held his gaze with hers. "You know that I am not what I seem to be." Glancing over her shoulder, he noticed her shadow moving of itself and changing shape, passing from the form of a woman to the shape of a fox with its head hung in dejection.

"I suspected this for a long time, but it was not my place to speak of it," he said.

She fingered her glass thoughtfully. "If you wonder what kept me from keeping my usual appointment here, it is because there was a death in my clan: my mate and his brother as well as several others were killed."

"There has been talk about something stalking the local wildlife and draining the blood while abandoning the remains," he said. "Someone attributed it to poachers, but why would poachers drain only the blood?"

"If only it were something as simple as poachers," Inari murmured, shaking her head. "It is something worse, something beyond the reach of your human laws and beyond my people's strength to turn against the threat without putting ourselves at risk."

"What do you mean?"

She lowered her voice and leaned closer to him, across the low table. "It was the work of blood drinkers… vampires."

"I would have thought kitsune could make short work of vampires," Oriya said.

She shook her head. "My clan has lost enough members to them, I would not risk sending more to meet their deaths." She reached across the table, putting a hand on his wrist. "You know a lot of people, Oriya-sama, you entertain many powerful men and you have connections with the government," Inari said. "I imagine you know someone who could avenge my fallen people."

Oriya peered out of the corners of his eyes, scanning the room and the other guests without turning his head and drawing attention to himself. "I know a man who could take easily care of this problem," he said in a low voice. He hated to bring his old friend into this, but he knew of nobody else skilled enough to take on something this dangerous.

Inari's eyes brightened and she lifted her head in a way that made him think of a fox pricking up its ears, her shadow echoing the movement. "And what is his price?"

"Not money, as he's independently wealthy," Oriya said. "He's a medical doctor and something of a researcher. He'd just need a few tissue samples in return."

Inari shrugged and Oriya thought he saw her shadow move as though she flicked her tail. "That is none of my concern: he is welcome to these blood-drinkers, what matters to me is that they die the final death for what they did to my lovers."

"Can you tell me anything about these… vampires?" Oriya asked.

"I am told they go by the family name Cullen and they recently arrived from America," she said. "I have asked around among my kin who were able to track them better than I. They seem to be connected to some research going on at the University."

"I will let him know," he said.

"Ask him but one thing: ask him to bring me their fangs, particularly the fangs of the young male with the pretty face," Inari said. "It was he who drank the blood of my mate."

Oriya covered her hand with his free one. "I will tell him, but it will be his decision to take this offer or not."

* * *

I usually spent my days working on my courses or reading; in the week and a half since we arrived, I'd started going for walks in the area around our apartment, but I didn't usually go too far: I couldn't risk getting lost and having to stop someone and ask for directions only to find I'd had the bad luck to run across someone who didn't speak much English. I had to get out since the apartment which Esme and Alice had found us was cramped for its size. At least the climate here was tolerable, except the nights were chilly, though that was to be expected since it was autumn now. But sleeping at night was a hassle, since Esme had chosen a somewhat traditional house for us to live in, which meant sitting on large cushions on the floor and sleeping on what looked like big thick mats. And she was always after Edward and I to take our shoes off when we came in the apartment. She said it would broaden our horizons, but I couldn't help but wish the scientists could keep working on their project so that we could go home to some place familiar.

Alice came along with me on those walks, and it was one particular crisp day, when I had to go out for toothpaste and other toiletries when the travel size ones I'd brought along had run out, that she insisted that I let her come with me. She looked perturbed, and I suspected she had had one of her visions and she didn't want Esme or Rosalie to overhear it. She covered it with her usual chatty friendliness

"What's on your mind?" I asked, when we were on the way back to the apartment.

"Well, I don't think I have to tell you I've had another vision," she said. "Be careful if you go hiking around here. I saw you lying in a ditch, you were dying and a dark man was standing over you."

"That's not going to happen any time soon," I said. "The hills around here are so steep, I'm not going to try that. I'd fall and break my neck for sure, unless Edward was there to catch me."

Alice smiled at me, but it didn't reach her eyes. "There was more, well, not much, but… I saw the moon rising blood-red over a Shinto shrine, but I couldn't make out which one. It was… it was as if someone reached into my head and poked my sight, as if someone had poked me in the eye."

"How can someone do that?" I asked.

"I don't know, it's never happened before, at least not like this," she said. "I've had glimpses of things, but I've never felt blocked."

"Maybe it's something in the foxes you're eating," I said.

She laughed her sweet silvery laugh, but her eyes looked worried.

That evening, Carlisle announced that the project was moving forward at last, since the missing Dr. Kazutaka Muraki had finally deigned to join the team. For once, luck was on my side.

* * *

"Am I some common cut-throat whose services can be hired out?" Oriya's most recent guest replied, almost the moment he received Inari's message.

"I do enough for you, hiding the messes that you've made," Oriya replied. "Consider this a favor to an old friend, requested by Inari's avatar."

His companion regarded this in silence, almost dumb-founded. "Very well, if one of her kind makes this request, who am I to turn it down?" A small smirk quirked one corner of his thin but sensuous mouth. "Nor can I turn down the challenge offered in a blood-drinker. Let the hunter become the hunted and learn how it feels to be tracked by a true predator…"

* * *

The next day was mildly overcast, which allowed Edward some cover: he wanted to show me some of the shrines in the area where he and the others had been hunting. I had my misgivings, after Alice had warned me about going hiking, but I would be with Edward after all, and if there was anyone quick enough to save me from a fall, it was him.

The scenery was lovely: we found one shrine which stood in the middle of a large stand of maples, their leaves a brilliant, fiery shade of crimson. The only catch was, it stood at the crest of a hill, with a staircase leading to it which seemed to go on forever.

We'd paused so that Edward could take a few pictures with my camera. He pestered me into posing against a backdrop of maples, the spire of a pagoda visible over the treetops. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw two young men watching us from the shadows of the trees, or pretending not to watch us, it was hard to tell. One was shorter, maybe in his teens, dressed in a casual green zip-up jacket over jeans and sneakers; his wheat-brown hair was neatly combed down around his ears, except for a tousled fringe about his forehead. But I had to force myself not to stare into his large emerald eyes: they looked calm and collected, but they held a deep wisdom beyond his years, as if he had seen pain that he shouldn't have had to endure. Something terrible must have happened to him to have made his eyes look this way.

His companion was about a head taller, taller than Edward, well over six feet high and slim -- no, slender was a better word for him. He wore a black overcoat that made me think of a detective in a black and white movie, unbuttoned and with the belt untied, over a black suit. The collar of his white shirt was unbuttoned over his throat and the knot of his black tie had been loosened, giving him air of a kind of rumpled elegance. I had to tilt my head back to get a good look at his face and as soon as I did, I had to keep my jaw from dropping. His face was beautiful, with a kind, gentle look about his delicate features, but I could see a deep compassionate look of mingled cheerfulness and sadness in his large violet amethyst eyes, which peered from under his tousled mane of brown hair. Something in those eyes and the quiet smile that crossed his face suggested thar he had suffered greatly and wished to prevent others from suffering as he had.

_Maybe this country isn't so bad after all, _I thought. _There's a good number of guys who are easy on the eyes._ I had to stop these thoughts before they went any further. I couldn't very well do that now that I was newly married to the most perfect, ageless man ever, and he was right there by my side.

I felt Edward's hand on my shoulder, tugging me toward him. I looked up at him. "What are you staring at?" he asked, his voice suddenly cool and suspicious.

"I thought I saw someone watching us under those trees," I said. I glanced back, but the shady spot was empty, as if the two young men had simply vanished. Was I seeing things now, or had I caught the attention of some sort of local spirits who were going to haunt me?

Edward looked over my shoulder in the direction of the trees, clearly looking for what I had seen; his topaz eyes narrowed. "I don't see anyone there now," he said. "Are you certain you saw something?"

"I don't know. It might have a trick of the light, or a ghost," I said.

"Come, let's keep going," he said and turned me around, leading me up the steps.

Something rustled under the trees and a white furred creature like a large cat with a thick, bushy tail burst from the shadows, fleeing down the steps. I realized, as it darted out of sight, that it was a large, white fox. I jolted at the sudden movement and lost my footing on the steps. I felt myself falling over backwards as I tumbled head first down the steps. Light exploded in my eyes and pain shot through me as I felt the back of my skull crack against the steps. I heard Edward yell my name and I saw him blur as he ran after me. But even he was too slow against the power of gravity. Everything went black….

_To be Continued…_


	2. Angel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Okay, this is where things start to really move along: first chapter was the set-up, this is where the action really starts. I have to admit, the verbosity of Stephanie Meyers's style made introducing one character almost too much fun: if Bella is always describing Edward's beauty, I imagine she'd do the same with the gentleman of taste you're about to meet. Feel free to review this: reviews to me are what a slice of apple pie is to Tsuzuki…
> 
> The references to the Nephillim and their relation to vampirism aren't a wholly original idea (though I developed an inkling of it), but something I borrowed from an essay Michelle Belanger, herself a psychic investigator and energy vampire.
> 
> * * *

"_I felt as though he were some kind of angel. He always wore white from top to bottom… an angel with silvery stare, piercing like steel." Tsubaki-hime, __**Descendants of Darkness**__, Episode 8_

_Please allow me to introduce myself,_

_I'm a man of wealth and taste…_

"_**Sympathy for the Devil" **__\-- The Rolling Stones_

Chapter Two: Angel

In spirit form. Hisoka and Tsuzuki ran after Edward. "Ugh, this guy runs fast," Tsuzuki panted. "Are you picking up anything up from them?"

"Just a lot of pain from Bella-chan: she's out cold," Hisoka replied.

Their path zig-zagged between buildings and down alleyways; at one point they lost sight of him, but Hisoka darted between two buildings, leading them back to him. "What about anything from him?" Tsuzuki asked.

"It's hard to read him, especially when we're running like this," Hisoka said.

"Hard to read him, how?"

"I'm only getting a residue of emotion."

"A residue?"

"I don't think he has a soul," Hisoka said.

"Huh? Then what is he?"

Hisoka darted a glance up at Tsuzuki. "You don't know? You're the one with seventy years of experience."

"That's true, but I've never seen anything like this before, not with my own eyes," Tsuzuki said.

Edward turned a corner around the side of a clinic and bolted through the front door. The two shinigami followed him a few steps behind, careful to keep a distance. Hisoka winced slightly: because of his high empathic skills, hospitals were uncomfortable places for him. Too much pain and worry and suffering filling the air, to say nothing of the memories it brought back of the last three years of the young man's life as a human.

Edward was all but yelling to the nurses behind the desk, first in English, then quickly switching to Japanese. But from the looks on the women's faces, they needed no words to explain the situation. The head nurse called to an orderly, and the two of them quickly examined Bella before placing her on a gurney and hurrying her down a corridor and out of sight. Edward trailed them, his pale face a mess of emotions ranging from shock and worry to anger.

Hisoka gasped, gripping his arm. Tsuzuki turned to his partner. "Are you all right?" he asked.

"He's here," Hisoka said, through gritted teeth. He pulled down one of his sleeves, showing the angry red scar-like sigils burned into his arms, the curse left on him three years before his death.

"What's Muraki doing here now?" Tsuzuki murmured, fighting back his own feelings of revulsion. He had to keep his calm for Hisoka's sake: the younger man's empathic abilities didn't need to be triggered at a time like this.

"Let's get you out of here, I think we've got something to start with," Tsuzuki said. "Let's go back and see if the Gushoshin can work with what we've found."

"As long as you can stand that fleabag hotel room we're stuck with," Hisoka said.

"Urgh, don't remind me," Tsuzuki said, wincing as he turned to lead the way back.

* * *

Slowly I came out of unconsciousness. I'd dimly heard Edward's voice and people talking rapidly in Japanese, but it came only in flashes before I sank back, but now I finally could rouse myself. I'd felt skilled hands working over me, and heard one soothing male voice speaking, but it all felt like a dream that came in pieces and flashes. My eyes fluttered open and I wondered for a moment if I had died and gone to heaven. A bright light shone over me and a beautiful face with skin as pale as moonlight looked down into my face. Was I looking up into the eyes of an angel?

"Come back to us, Bella, it's not time for you to leave this world yet," a man's soothing voice said.

I glanced around, though my head ached at just that simple movement and I realized I lay on a bed in a hospital, bandages wrapped around my arms, more bandages wound around my head. The apparition which hovered over me was obviously one of the doctors, sitting on the edge of the bed, but as I got a better look at it, it was easy to see why I would mistake him for an angel. His skin was as pale as Edward's, and for a moment, I wondered if he could be another vampire, but his complexion lacked the marble-like gloss, and his dense hair was like silvery silk, falling over one eye. The other, which peered at me through rimless eyeglasses, was a strange shade of silvery grey with a hint of pale blue-violet, the pupil long and narrow like a cat's eye; I could just make out his hidden eye, under the fall of his mane, but something about it looked fixed and unmoving, as if it might be a glass eye. His narrow, clean-shaven face looked every bit as beautiful and perfect as Edward's, but somehow more exotic. He was dressed all in white, a white lab coat over an expensive-looking white suit neatly tailored to his trim figure, with a grey silk shirt, his black tie knotted perfectly at his throat. I had to remind myself that I was a married woman and I couldn't in good faith look at a strange man like this.

"Am I dead?" I asked.

The doctor smiled at me, his pale eyes narrowing a little. "No, not yet, though you were barely breathing when your husband rushed you in." He spoke English perfectly, with just the slightest trace of an accent, which just added to his exotic qualities.

I tried to sit up, but he gently pushed me down on the bed with a graceful, long-fingered hand, his nails neatly manicured. I found it hard to believe a mere man could have hands that looked as delicate yet strong as his. "Relax, rest, Bella-san; you had a horrible fall and you're still recovering from a concussion; I also had to stitch up several nasty cuts, and you sprained your left ankle."

I managed to laugh. "It's a miracle I didn't break my neck."

He smirked. "Broken bones are about the only injuries you didn't manage to sustain," he said.

Edward came to the side of the bed, and I had to smile: I was the luckiest girl in the hospital, and no doubt anyone who saw me would have envied me for having two such handsome men so close to me.

"How soon can she leave the hospital?" he asked.

The doctor stood up and took off his glasses, giving the lenses a polish with a handkerchief produced from his breast pocket. "I've admitted her for observation. The X-rays show no sign of bleeding inside her brain, but some things don't show up in the first few hours after an injury like this, and she needs to stay off that ankle as well." I shuddered a little at the sound of that, but as long as he was the one doing the observing, I didn't mind as much. "Now, tell me, Bella-san, what exactly happened to you?"

"I lost my footing on some steps," I said. "I think they made me dizzy."

He replaced his glasses, pushing them up the bridge of his nose with two fingers. "Hm, does something like that happen to you regularly?"

"I've been clumsy all my life; I get dizzy really easily," I said. "Especially if I'm near a handsome man." I said this with a laugh and looked away bashfully. The doctor chuckled, but Edward glared at him. The doctor didn't seem to make any note of Edward's reaction.

"Hm, that's not a good sign then, if you've had this problem for that long," he said. "Tomorrow, when you're rested, we will need to run some tests to determine the cause of that dizziness so you can start a treatment regimen."

"Dr. Muraki, is that really necessary?" Edward said.

"If she's had this problem for as long as she says, it could be a sign of something serious. My first thought was it might be a benign form of vertigo, but if she's had it all her life, it could be something called Meniere's Syndrome, which will only get worse -- much worse -- over time unless it's treated.

"So are you spending your honeymoon in Kyoto?" the doctor asked, changing the subject. "I see you're both wearing wedding rings."

I started to speak, but Edward cut in. "We came to Japan on business, but yes, we're recently married. We were doing a little sightseeing when she took the fall."

"We were on some steps by some temple in the hills, and I tripped," I said.

The doctor started a little, his good eye widening. "That's not a good sign: they say it's bad luck to fall on those steps, if it's the spot I'm thinking of."

Edward glowered at the doctor, and the way he gathered himself, I half expected him to attack. But Dr. Muraki responded to this with only a calm look in Edward's direction. The tension in the air seemed to abate, much as it would have if Jasper had been there, which only made me wonder all the more if the doctor might have something in common with Edward besides sharing his pale good looks.

"I'd better see about the bill and I'd better call the others," Edward said, getting up. He leaned down and kissed my cheek before he left the room.

I settled back on the bed, closing my eyes, but I shifted restlessly, trying to find a comfortable spot on my pillows.

"Are you thinking about that curse, Bella-chan? That was thoughtless of me to mention," Dr. Muraki said, sounding genuinely contrite.

I opened my eyes, looking up into his face. I swore I felt better just looking at him. "No, it's all right," I said. "I know I'm already cursed: cursed with being klutzy." I smiled a little at my own joke and this made him reply with a small, gracious smirk. "But it did make me a little worried."

"Well, just in case there's any truth to those old stories, would you allow me to cast a simple protective spell over you to ward off anything harmful which might try to disturb you?" he asked.

When I was in high school in Phoenix, I had a friend, Krista, who had taken up Wicca and was always offering to cast spells for me, usually silly things like to ward off zits or to get a grouchy bus driver to leave us alone. I never knew what to make of it, but it couldn't hurt to try, and there had to be something to it if someone as clearly well-educated as a medical doctor was offering me this kind of protection. What was the worst it could do?

"Sure," I said.

"Now, you might feel very sleepy afterward, but that's no cause for you to be alarmed: it's merely a part of the spell taking effect," he said. And reaching down to me he laid one long, manicured hand over my forehead, murmuring something in Japanese. His fingertips felt cool to the touch, but I felt the patch of my skin where he had laid his hand start to grow warm. My eyelids started to droop within seconds and I barely felt him lean over me before tucking in the covers around me and whispering a gentle "Sleep well, Bella-chan…" before I fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

The hotel room that Tatsumi had reserved for them had turned out to be much less than Tsuzuki had hoped for: the building looked run down and the hotel manager had glared at them suspiciously as they had checked in earlier. The one bed in the room itself had a lumpy mattress. The place stank of stale boiled cabbage and when Tsuzuki tried to open the window to air the room out, he got it open only halfway before the sash stuck fast.

"Grrrr, that cheapskate, I'm gonna kill Tatsumi the next time I see him," Tsuzuki muttered, tugging on the window one last time before finally giving up.

"You can't do that, he's already dead," Hisoka said, deadpan.

"Did you just try to make a joke?" Tsuzuki asked, clearly trying to brighten up. Hisoka only gave him a withering look in reply

The Gushoshin seemed oblivious to their threadbare surroundings; the small, birdlike creature sat on the floor tapping away on a laptop, running some research and compiling the data which the two shinigami had gathered so far.

"Too bad Watari had to go and use himself as his own guinea pig for the latest of his crazy potions," Hisoka said. "He'd be less likely to complain about the room."

"And then I'd have to carry you around in my pocket: that might be cute, come to think of it. With your looks, you'd make a great chibi." Tsuzuki teased.

"Or I might have to carry you around: you're more likely to wind up as his test subject, with your sweet tooth. You'd eat anything sweet you'd found lying around," Hisoka said.

"Waaah!" Tsuzuki wailed, face palming.

"Ooohhh!" the Gushoshin cried. "Mr. Tsuzuki, I've found something."

"What is it?" Tsuzuki asked, recovering and peering over the edge of the monitor.

The bird-like creature pointed to the screen. "I sent a request to the Seattle office, asking if they had a file on Edward Cullen. They had to refer me to the Chicago office."

On the screen was a scan of a yellowed death certificate, bearing the name "Edward Masen"; the date of issue read plainly: 1918. One of the signatures on it read "Carlisle Cullen"

"Huh? What's going on?" Tsuzuki asked, puzzled.

"There's more to Hisoka's hunch than we thought: Edward Cullen must be a revenant of some kind. Probably a vampire."

"I thought vampires had to avoid the sun at all cost," Hisoka said, looking up from the magazine he leafed through as he sat curled up on the bed. "Unless he's something like Maria Wong. Is this Carlisle Cullen controlling Edward the same way…?" Hisoka paused, not wanting to finish that sentence. But Tsuzuki knew why: considering what had happened to him in the hospital, Hisoka would rather not bring up old memories of their first case together, involving Maria Wong, the Chinese diva who had become a vampire-like creature under the control of the very same man who had tormented Hisoka three years earlier.

"I suppose its possible, but I don't think it's likely," the Gushoshin said. "I know someone who could sniff that out, but it could take some time to get ahold of her. The files in the Chicago office that far back are a mess: there was a lot of gang activity in the city and they even had connections with the Ministry of Hades, covering up some of the evidence."

"What about a file on Carlisle Cullen?"

"The Seattle office didn't have anything, so I had to contact the London office: they're supposed to get back to me on it as soon as they can." An email alert pinged. "Oh, here it is," the Gushoshin said, opening the file.

The document shown in the file looked even more yellowed than the death certificate and the lettering looked so antique, Tsuzuki couldn't make it out.

"What does it say?" he asked.

"It's another death certificate, this time for Carlisle Cullen," the Gushoshin said. "It's got a date of 1663."

"Is there more?"

"Well, nothing that really applies to this case, but I'll look around. I know I've seen his name before." The Gushoshin opened the web browser and typed something into the search engine. A list of news items popped up; the bird-like creature clicked on one. "Hm… Look at this."

It was a recent article from a Kyoto newspaper. _Shion University Researchers Announce Initial Trials on Synthetic Blood Substitute._ "It seems Carlisle Cullen is a medical researcher specializing in blood diseases, and he's come here from America to assist the researchers at the university."

"A vampire who specializes in blood diseases?" Tsuzuki mused. "I suppose he's putting his supernatural skills to good use."

"That's unsettling," Hisoka murmured, wrapping his arms around his torso as if he felt chilly.

The Gushoshin scrolled down the page; halfway down was a photograph of the research team, a group of men in suits and lab coats gathered about a conference table, facing the camera. Most of them looked like older men, but at the back of the group stood two younger men, one of them a blonde American man in his twenties, who almost looked too young to be a doctor, looking toward the camera with a gentle smile; next to him stood Muraki, turned slightly so that he peered at the camera sidewise, a quiet smirk crossing his face.

"Why would Muraki be involved in something like this?" Tsuzuki mused. "We know that he regularly siphons the life force from people and he's not above drinking their blood for effect."

"Maybe it's a business investment," the Gushoshin said.

"We can only hope that's all it is," Hisoka said. "Could he be on to us and he's turning up just to distract us?"

"That's likely the case, which means we'd better try to ignore him and focus on the Cullens," Tsuzuki said, as much for his own benefit as Hisoka's. The thought that Muraki might be in the area inspired feelings in him that he had to fight to quench.

"Do you want me to contact that specialist?" the Gushoshin asked.

"If we're going to find out more on Carlisle Cullen, then we should contact her," Tsuzuki said.

The Gushoshin opened and instant messaging program and clicked one of the contacts, one "Mercy_Falcone":

_ **Gushoshin_Meifu:** _ _ Hello, Mercy. Are you free to talk?_

_ **Mercy_Falcone:** _ _ Konnichi-wa, Gushoshin. I'm on night shift tonight._

_ **Gushoshin_Meifu:** _ _ I hope you aren't too busy. I need to ask you if you have a file on Carlisle Cullen?_

_ **Mercy_Falcone: ** _ _You want the short one or the long one? We've been keeping an eye on him and his clan. They're harmless of themselves, but he has ties with the Volturi, a council of dangerous sanguinary vampires in Italy._

"Tell her we just need the short file," Tsuzuki said. "The long file sounds like an overload of information."

_ **Gushoshin_Meifu:** _ _ We'd like to see the short file, if it isn't too much trouble._

_ **Mercy_Falcone:** _ _ Got it. If you see Seichiro-san, tell him I said hello._

"She knows Tatsumi?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Yeah, she's been in the main American office for some time now," the Gushoshin said.

A file transfer popped up on screen; the Gushoshin clicked on it, then sent it to the printer. As the pages cranked out, Tsuzuki picked them up and scanned them.

Carlisle Cullen had been under the scrutiny of the American offices' center of operations in Salem, Massachusetts: his ties to a clan of notorious vampires in Italy, known as the Volturi, had made him suspect since that clan had been connected to a steady stream of disappearing tourists. Carlisle had sought to defy their methods and fed only on animal blood, but considering he had created a clan of his own and brought in several younger vampires who had formerly hunted humans, his actions were still considered questionable. Among the first he had changed was one Edward Masen, who had later left the clan for a while to follow his own path, hunting humans and targeting criminals. Several agencies in the human world were looking into a problem with large endangered predators disappearing in the American North West, which had resulted in an imbalance in the number of herbivores: the deer population in Forks, Washington had exploded, resulting in over-grazing and road accidents, which had kept the Seattle office busier than it should have, dealing with the influx of souls wandering at the roadsides.

"So Edward Cullen is a vampire…" Tsuzuki said. "That could explain why Bella's candle is burning oddly."

"Why would that happen?" Hisoka asked. "They were feeding on animal blood."

"Animal blood isn't quite potent enough to sustain a vampire, so it's not unusual for them to supplement this by drawing the life-force from the people around them," Tsuzuki said. "They can do this without even being aware of it, and if Carlisle Cullen was encouraging his clan to feed on animal blood, then he was unwittingly causing them to start feeding on the emotions and energy of the people around them. For all his concern for human lives, he still caused them to depend on those human lives."

"I want to think I saw a news item that the caretakers at several Shinto shrines here in Kyoto were reporting they'd found the bodies of foxes and bears in the woods, and the animals had been drained completely of their blood," the Gushoshin said.

"This isn't good: not only will that cause an imbalance in the physical world, but that could upset some of the local kami," Tsuzuki said.

Hisoka narrowed his eyes, wincing. Tsuzuki wondered if the sigils burned into the younger shinigami's flesh had grown inflamed once again.

"Gushoshin, notify the Ministry: we're going to need some silver stakes," Tsuzuki said.

"You got it," the Gushoshin said, quickly typing an email.

"Wait, isn't Bella married to Edward Cullen? She's not going to take it well if she finds out you had to kill her husband," the small bird-like spirit said.

"We will have to inform her of what's going on, but we still have to separate her from Edward, before he does any more harm to her," Tsuzuki said.

"You don't sound particularly thrilled to do that, but who would want to tell a girl that you had to kill her husband, even if he was the wrong man for her," Hisoka said.

"You could always help me by getting a feel for her so I can proceed with caution," Tsuzuki said.

"Don't ask me to do that again, I got a trace of her emotions before she took that fall," Hisoka said, gritting his teeth. I've never heard anyone more whiny or discontented: she's not happy to be here in the first place, and she's probably gotten worse due to the energy drain."

Tsuzuki approached the bed and knelt beside it, putting a hand on Hisoka's shoulder. "We'll do this together, then," he said, reassuringly. "You can take my strength and energy and I'll follow your intuition. I'll keep the big bad vampires off you and I'll help you process her pain." He rose to his feet. "Well, while we're waiting for the courier to show up with the silver stakes, we'd better fortify our vampire hunting strength with a meal."

"Wouldn't that make you taste better to the vampire?" Hisoka said, glaring a little, but a hint of a small smile of amusement showed in one corner of his mouth.

"It might, but don't worry: I'd never use you as the bait," Tsuzuki teased. Hisoka glowered, but said nothing to this.

* * *

"I'm glad she's going to be all right," Alice said, over the cellphone. "Is there anything I can do?"

"No, she just needs to rest and mend. You can probably visit her in the morning," Edward said. In a lower voice, careful not to let the nurses at their station nearby overhear him, he added, "I may go hunting: I feel a bit drained, but if not, I should be home in a few minutes."

"Okay, don't let me hold you up," Alice replied. "I'll see you later." She hung up. Edward closed his phone and slid it back into the pocket of his coat. He was about to head out into the night, when he heard a light footstep behind him. He turned to find Dr. Muraki looking at him intently, a white overcoat draped over his shoulders.

"I spoke out of turn when I mentioned that curse and I would like to make amends," Muraki said. "Might I buy you a drink?"

"Thank you, doctor, but I can't, I'm underaged," Edward said.

"I gathered that," He added, in English, "I also know what you are: I am, after all, working with the one who changed you."

"Well, if you know Carlisle as well as you do, you know that he's taught me to be a vegetarian," Edward replied, coolly.

"I know a good deal about your dietary requirements, and I've made provision for it," Muraki said, one step ahead of him. "Consider this a chance where you needn't go to the trouble of hunting for your nourishment. I know of…a retiring place where no one will ask questions."

"Well, since you offered, I don't want to appear rude," Edward said.

They stepped out into the cool of the late evening: a hint of frost hovered in the air. Twilight had settled in over the city and the first stars started to gleam through the rends in the clouds overhead.

"A beautiful night for a walk in the old capital," Muraki mused, slipping his arms through the sleeves of his overcoat. "Is this your first time visiting Japan? You speak the language very well for a non-native speaker."

"I taught myself the language about twenty years ago," Edward replied. "I've had a lot of time on my hands, so I've taught myself several languages and I've been composing for the piano."

"Impressive. Have you considered applying or transferring to the university while your …family is staying here? These clinical trials can go on for weeks or months," Muraki said. Edward was not sure if he liked the weight which he gave to "family", but he let it go.

Their path took them from a more modern area to a much older part of the city: the streets grew narrower and the brick and stucco structures gave way to two-storey wooden buildings with overhanging roofs and shoji windows. His guide paused before one somewhat rambling structure; several paper lanterns hung in the entry way. From the interior, there drifted voices and the clink of glasses and crockery as well as some sweet yet disconsolate koto music. Edward held back, but Muraki stepped under the overhang before the front door and reaching up, pulled on a bell rope that hung down. A bell clanked somewhere inside.

"You needn't worry about anyone here suspecting what you are," Muraki said, beckoning to Edward to follow him in. "The manager is an old friend of mine and he's known in the city as a keeper of secrets."

Once they stepped inside, Edward had a momentary lapse of etiquette and started to step up into the entryway without first taking off his shoes. The two female attendants who had entered, one to take their coats, the other toe collect their shoes, eyed Edward with something like suspicion. Edward listened in on their thoughts:

_Who's this awkward American that Muraki-sensei brought here? _one thought. _He'll track the dust from the street onto the floor._

_There's a first time for everyone and this is clearly the new boy's first time here…_ the other thought, peering around Muraki's shoulder as she helped him remove his coat. _Wonder who'll have the honor of *his* first time…_

Edward looked up at Muraki. "This place is a…"

"An exclusive restaurant catering to a variety of needs and tastes, but only to those who can afford both its prices and its secrecy," Muraki replied calmly but with a hint that he somehow relished Edward's discomfort. An even taller man with a long mane of dense, dark brown hair, his broad-shouldered form clad in a long, dark red kimono with the neck open over his muscled chest approached, eying the newcomer.

"You're back later than we expected, Muraki-sensei," the tall man said.

"That last call just before sundown took a while," Muraki said, then quickly introduced Edward to the manager of the restaurant, who led them through a common area, and thence down a hallway leading the rear of the building.

Edward opened his awareness and listened along the way. Over the chatter of the guests, he could hear that Oriya hid suspicion behind his mask of stately politeness: _Who are you bringing here now, Muraki? It's none of my business who you do what with, but think of my reputation. And what would Ukyou think if she knew you'd come here with a male prostitute?!_

He wondered if the manager sensed something, since the taller man's thoughts abruptly changed to a dialect which Edward could barely follow, but he could make out the man's feelings from the inflection of his thoughts. It was all he could do to keep from blurting out, "It's nothing like that," but he couldn't risk being found out. A female servant passing them in the hallway looked in Edward's direction, thinking, _Is that a friend or a distant relative of Muraki-sensei? He's so handsome…_

They came to sparsely furnished room overlooking the river, a small table by the window was set for two. Edward seated himself by the table, but a quick look of warning from Muraki clearly told him he'd broken yet another of these interminable rules of etiquette. Old-fashioned politeness was part of Edward's being, but the ways of the East seemed labyrinthine.

"We were going to hold your evening meal for you, but when I called, they told me you'd had an emergency call come in."

"Yes, that was Cullen-san's young wife; I'm working with his father at the university," Muraki said.

"Ahh, the blood substitute study?" Oriya asked.

"Yes, my father is…an expert on blood diseases and he's been offering his assistance in creating a proper balance of compounds," Edward said.

Oriya smiled knowingly. "I wouldn't expect anything less from a blood-drinker."

Edward felt himself glaring and he had to steel himself against gathering himself confrontationally. "You knew about this…?"

"Muraki-sensei has told me much about you, but rest assured: your identity and your nature are safe with me. My family has been guarding the secrets of the rich and the powerful for generations," Oriya replied, but something in the tone of his thoughts suggested he might make an exception this time, and that he did not approve of having a "blood-drinker" under his roof. "What could be more powerful than an immortal being?"

"Probably not much else," Edward said, with a small hint of pride.

"So shall I have them serve the meal now?" Oriya asked.

"Mmm, I'd rather start with a drink: I promised Edward-san that I would buy him one," Muraki said. "I'm rather glad I …set up that private reserve now."

"I'll have them send it up straight away," Oriya said, and left the room. His mind slipped back into standard Japanese: _At least I'll have that ghastly stuff out of my refrigerator; I don't care what you do in your own space, but keep your science experiments to yourself, Kazu-kun…_

Once Oriya had departed, Muraki seated himself cross-legged by the window. Edward took this as his cue, but something in the taller man's body language as well as the thoughts had overheard left him unsettled.

"This private reserve you mentioned…" Edward asked, hesitating.

Muraki took a silver cigarette case from his breast pocket and opened it, taking out a cigarette. "Oh, don't look so scared, I made some rather Byzantine arrangements with the owner of a stockyard. I hope beef blood is acceptable?"

"It'll do. I'm just used to having it straight from the vein," Edward said.

Muraki lit the cigarette and pocketed the lighter, taking a pull and releasing a lungful of smoke slowly. "So I've heard many of your kind say they prefer it that way." But something in his tone suggested he had some personal experience in the matter. "And no, you and your family aren't the first blood-drinkers I've had the chance to encounter." Edward drew in a breath, trying to get a scent off the man, but he found Muraki did not smell of anything. There was a hint of an expensive, musky cologne under a veil of cigarette smoke and antiseptic, but the man's flesh gave out no aroma of its own, not a trace of sweat or anything else. _What is he?_ Edward thought.

A maidservant entered with a tray bearing a bottle of sake and a second, darker-colored bottle, clearly a repurposed wine bottle three-quarters full of blood. The maid started to pour their drinks, but Muraki shooed her away and filled one drinking bowl from the dark colored bottle, pushing it toward Edward. He couldn't help overhearing the maid sighing with relief as she left the room.

The blood tasted of the anti-coagulant it had been mixed with, and Edward could only manage a few polite sips of it. He tried to listen in on the taller man's thoughts, but he heard not a word. He had expected Muraki would be thinking in Japanese, but the only sound that met Edward's perception was a dark hollowness, like an echoing wind in a deep cave.

"I wouldn't advise trying to listen to my thoughts, Edward-san: you may as well as try to eavesdrop on the thoughts of the wind," Muraki replied.

"How did you know about my gift…" Edward asked, wondering if Muraki somehow shared the same talent.

Muraki gave him a narrow smile. "I have my ways of finding out a shocking range of information on the people around me. It pays to stay informed." He paused and stubbed out his cigarette in a small black ashtray on his side of the table. "On the subject of useful information, have you ever wondered about the root cause of vampirism, Edward-san?" he asked.

"The thought has crossed my mind, but it's not something which I thought would be healthy for me to dwell on too long," Edward replied, setting down the drinking bowl and pushing it away from himself.

Muraki peered at him over the tops of his eyeglasses. "Afraid to look into the mirror and gaze into the eyes of the monster looking back?"

"I'm aware that I'm a monster: you don't have to rub my face in it," Edward winced.

"At least you acknowledge that much: I was beginning to worry that you were one of the worst class of monsters: the ones who aren't aware that they are, or who have, out of horror, blinded themselves to their own true nature."

"You seem to know a lot about what sort of creature I am, for a man of science."

Muraki smirked. "Science isn't so limited to matters of the physical world as ordinary people commonly know it. You've met the head of the metaphysical biology department, one of the most sensible men of science in this country, and yet he's managed to measure the bounds of the human soul and find a link between it and the physical body. But this discipline isn't limited to the human soul: there have been others who have begun to look into the natures of paranormal beings, the better to understand their place in the grand scheme of things.

"Have you ever heard of the Grigori, or the Watcher angels as they are sometimes called?"

"No, I haven't." Edward admitted

"According to the apocryphal Book of Enoch, they were a group of angels who defied heaven and chose to descend to earth, because they desired the delights which only the flesh can afford, and the pleasure which human love brings."

"What are you getting at? What does this have to do with it?"

Muraki held up one long-fingered hand as if chiding him. "Patience, Edward-san, I'm coming to that in due time. It is written, _'And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another's flesh, and drink the blood._' I often wondered if that passage describes vampirism. That perhaps the Nephillim were the ancestors of those whose lives depend on the blood of others, whether it is the blood of the body or the blood of the spirit."

Edward looked away. "I'd rather not think about either. The blood of the body is one thing, but this blood of the spirit…"

"And why not? It's a much more abundant source of nourishment."

"Carlisle taught me to feed only on animals, only on creatures without souls to be harmed."

"And that is how the West differs from the East. Here we hold that all of nature contains a spark of the universal life force, from mankind down to the smallest stone. All of it gives off a field of energy, pouring out, free for the taking. One need not take the life of one's source of nourishment, though the death of another can supply a far more satisfying meal than mere skimming from the surface of your prey's life force."

"What are you getting at? What does this have to do with anything? Why are you even talking about this?"

Muraki ignored Edward's outburst, continuing his speech with the same insinuating calm. "I've read texts which only a handful of scholars have seen: It is said one of the Grigori, Kashday, sought to find ways in which to grant immortality to a select number of humans. You might call them the earliest known genetic experiments, creating symbiotic pathogens that changed the very substance of the next person to whom they were transmitted, generally by a bite. From the bloodline of the modified Nephillim which he created, there rose vampires and werewolves and other denizens of the darkness, feeding upon the light."

"So are you trying to say that vampires and werewolves are descendants of these Nephillim?"

"If those stories are true, but considering the things I have seen in the course of my own research and discovery, it would not surprise me if they were."

"But what does all this rigmarole mean?"

"What I mean is this: you and I are not so different. We both have an inner darkness neither of us can escape. I can sense that in you. Why else would you cling so passionately to your… vegetarianism, as you call it. In a sense, you were a vampire even before Carlisle changed you: we all were, starting in the womb when each of us subsisted on the blood of our mothers. It was for this reason -- not the sole reason, but one among many, that I chose not to run from this darkness, but to embrace it, to consume and be consumed by it. But you fear what you are, and you refuse to embrace it, and so it consumes those around you without your willing it."

Edward glared at him. "It's not something that I care to talk about, least of all to you. I do the best with what I have. And if you think it's easy, you have another thought coming."

"A classic sign of denial," Muraki observed. "How long do you think you can keep up this charade? How long before you can no longer keep up this fantasy, before you lose your control around your blushing _human _bride and she becomes your next victim?"

"That's why Carlisle agreed to take part in the research on the blood substitute, so we won't run this risk," Edward retorted.

Muraki adjusted his eyeglasses. "That might take care of your physical needs," he said, looking Edward in the eye and holding his gaze with his own. He said nothing for a moment and the air in the room seemed to grow heavier. "But you forget that your vampiric nature has a preternatural side to it. You forget that your existence depends upon the life force of other humanoids. Even if you don't consciously feed upon the energy which their beings emit, you still absorb whatever energy you can find, whether you can take from the willing or the unwilling."

"You're talking crazy, Muraki, I don't do anything of the kind," Edward snapped.

"I'm beginning to understand why you married that awkward young woman, your beautiful swan: she's a rich source of nutrients. She might put up a front of adolescent apathy, but she opens up to you, enough to let you in to the emotions that she hides. Granted, it's all discontent and angst and selfishness and shallowness, but it is what it is: a rich source of nourishment, the vitamins and protein you need to supplement that bland diet you've limited yourself to."

"It was nothing like that! I married Bella because I love her!"

"A lovely sentiment, but your energy field, the little that you give off, speaks otherwise." Muraki said, narrowing his eyes.

"Stop that!" Edward snapped, jumping to his feet. The heaviness in the air quickly dissipated; Muraki looked up at him with a mocking look of phony surprise. "I don't know what kind of games you're trying to play here, or what kind of webs you're trying to weave around me, but I'm not going to have any part of it."

"There's no games involved here, Edward-san, and if there are any webs entangling you, I am the one trying to cut through those which have already been woven around you," Muraki said.

"In that case, I'd rather be bound by them than have the kind of freedom you offer," Edward said. He turned and strode out into the hallway. He nearly walked into a startled maid on his way out to the street below, out into the night and the moonlight, pausing only to snatch his shoes from an attendant in the entryway. He kept going, heading toward the forest behind the shrine where the clan had chosen to hunt.

Now he knew why he could not read Muraki's mind: he was dealing with someone -- something between human and vampire, something he had never encountered before. He would have to consult Carlisle about this and warn him about what had happened and that he suspected Muraki was trying to get between him and Bella, but that would have to wait. Hunting angry was not something he preferred to do, since he had to hold back from being too violent with his targets, but he still had to feed.

As Edward stormed off into the trees, he thought he heard a fox yipping, almost as if it were laughing at him

* * *

Well over an hour had passed since Edward had called. Alice could not put a name to it, but something must have gone wrong. She tried to chalk it up to a simple thing like the fact that he might have gone hunting, but something did not feel right.

She stepped outside, intending to go looking for him in the spot where the family usually hunted. She looked up at the night sky. The clouds that had hung over the city had mostly broken up and she could see the stars above between the rags of clouds which still floated overhead, but the moon still lay hidden. A breeze arose, ruffling the trees in the next yard and sending an eddy of colored leaves spiraling around her. The clouds rolled back from the moon, uncovering its blood red face.

Alice stifled a gasp, remembering her conversation with Bella the day before. She forced herself to focus, reaching out for any new images. She saw a white fox running through a forest, then all she could see were a pair of steely-colored eyes glaring at her. Her sight snapped back to the present.

The red moon…

She dialed Bella's cellphone number. "Please, pick up," she murmured. Only the voice mail responded. "Hm. The nurses may have taken her cellphone for safe-keeping." She had no choice left but to run to the hospital and check on Bella that way. But before she did that, she was going to need some back-up.

She tapped on the door of the room she shared with Jasper; receiving no answer, she slid the door open and looked in. She found him sitting on the floor at a low table, surrounded by books and papers, tracing kanji over and over on a large sheet of paper.

"You've really gone native," Alice said.

Jasper looked up with a smile. "Trust me, I'm barely even a beginner when it comes to kanji. So what's on your mind? You look like you had a bad vision."

"That's exactly what happened," Alice said. "Edward called saying he'd be home after a hunt, but he's been gone longer than it would usually take." She glanced to the window. "And I've been having a vision of a red moon, but I got a bad feeling about it."

Jasper rose and went to the window. He turned her and she felt an aura of reassurance flow from him, but she could sense his own concern behind it. "And here I thought we were just having an unexpected lunar eclipse," he said. "Lead the way: I've got your back, love."

_To be Continued…_


	3. Demon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: I have to admit, much as I don't really like the Twilight cast (well, Bella and Edward, anyway; the Volturi are interesting, even if they come off as the Wal-Mart version of the Camarilla in White Wolf's _World of Darkness -- Vampire the Masquerade/the Requiem_ tabletop RPGs, I love Alice to bits and pieces and Jasper is pretty cool, too), this chapter had me restraining myself from yelling "WATCH OUT! Run away from this guy, he's *DANGEROUS*!" YnM fans, you'll know why. Also, as much as I love Muraki, I realize what a sick, evil, frakked-in-the-head bastard he is; there is a side of me which is all "Draco in Leather Pants" for him (to steal a phrase from TV tropes .org), but I keep that side locked in the sub-sub-basement of my psyche; I let her out only to show her what her sweetie is really like. Thus, for this chapter there is a --
> 
> WARNING: Contains violence, blood, slash with questionable consent (Muraki/Edward, with the latter in a psychic fog), character death and a strange sexual dream (Bella/???).
> 
> Special thanks goes out to the folks at Live Journal's "little_details" community for suggestions on how to stake a Meyer-pire as well as the Japanese translation for the title of this fic.
> 
> Edited Dec. 22 to fix a glaring hole
> 
> * * *

"_You call him an angel but he didn't really deserve that name. You don't even know what he was *really* like…" _Hisoka, **Descendants of Darkness**, Episode 8

_The doctor is in… sane_

"Vena Cava", Angelspit

Chapter Three: Demon

Once he had reached the clearing where the family generally gathered before a hunt, Edward paused in the shadows under the trees, which to his eyes looked far less murky than they would to a human. He drew in a long breath to taste the air: the musky scent of a fox came to him from the near distance to his right. Peering into the distance, he spotted a white fox under the trees, looking toward him. Hoping that the animal didn't see him or smell him, he started down the path in that direction and stepped off into the bracken.

He had hardly gone a few steps when he felt something catch on his ankle and tighten. His legs suddenly froze under him and he fell flat on his face in the leaf mold. Spitting out a mouthful of dirt and propping himself up on one elbow, he looked back, finding a trip wire wrapped about his ankles.

The clouds overhead broke and the moon slid from behind them, casting a silvery light over the forest before the clouds rolled in again and swallowed the light.

He felt someone suddenly just there behind him. Edward started to turn to look at the intruder, when he was pinned down and a noose of wire wrapped around his neck. He did not need to breathe, but the pressure still made him gag. He tried to lash out with his hands, but his attacker bound his wrists in front of him. His body felt immobilized, propped now on his bound hands.

"I wouldn't try to struggle against those bonds: they're a charm from the netherworld, woven from the hair of a hanged woman," a sardonic voice said behind him. His attacker leaned over him, peering over his left shoulder.

"Muraki… let me go," he choked.

The noose about his neck loosened enough to let him speak. "And why would I do that, when I went to so much trouble trying to catch you?" His captor yanked open the front of his shirt, then ran one long-fingered hand over the muscles of his chest. Then he heard a scraping noise and felt something scratching at his skin.

"What are you doing?" Edward demanded.

"Oh, nothing of any importance… except for etching some binding spells into your skin with a stone carver's blade."

"Binding spells?"

"You're so certain of your place as an apex predator that you don't seem to realize another predator could outwit you."

"Outwit me?"

"Are you really so dense, Edward-chan? Do I have to spell everything out to you? Very well, they do say that actions speak louder than words…"

He felt something sharp press against the middle of his back. It hovered there for a moment and he heard a sharp metallic clank and a sharp pain cut into his back. Pain. The first time he had felt it nearly ninety years. Another clank and the pain tore into his chest. Muraki paused and Edward could hear him breathe, deeply and hard, but with a measured calm. With a growling hiss through his teeth, he struck a third time; Edward felt something break through the wall of his chest. He stared down at his chest: the point of a sharp metallic spike jutted from the middle of his chest, just below his breastbone. A burning sensation tore through his flesh and he started panting, just from the pain.

"Yes, outwit you," Muraki murmured. "You fear your own strength, despite the fact that you rely on it so much. And you forget that you have the cunning which most humans lack. Despite your supernatural state, you lack a good deal of skill. But I suppose this is what comes of … pretending to be normal."

"You can't kill me with that stake," Edward grunted, trying to push the burning pain out of his awareness.

Muraki dug the pointed metal shaft in deeper. "Oh, and why not? It's the easiest way to kill any mammal, particularly human ones. Or formerly human ones, I might add." He leaned in closer, his breath ruffling Edward's hair, and licked the edge of the shorter male's left ear. "Silver alone is a challenge to many creatures of the dark. Besides," He caught the top lobe of Edward's ear between his teeth and released it. "Not all vampires need to drink blood. As I told you, the energy emanating from a person can be just as heady and satisfying, a gateway to the life-force of others. The very life-force of the planet and the elements which comprise it can ward off the final death, but only to those who have discovered its properties and allow themselves to drink from it and drink deeply."

"I can't do that… Carlisle taught me --"

"To pretend to be what you are not." Muraki moved in closer and kissed the side of his head, gently running the tip of his nose along Edward's jaw line. The aura that flowed from the taller male caused the hairs on the back of Edward's neck to prickle and stand up on end. "Mmm… have you ever wondered just what it would taste like, Edward-san? The life-force of another, flowing into your being, nourishing you and strengthening your body?"

"I have killed before. I've killed humans, as well."

"But that still doesn't make you a predator: I can tell you never made a study of your prey, nor do you bait them well," Muraki said. "You dash into things, or you hold back in hesitation. You fluctuate from one extreme to the other, with no middle ground. But I suppose it's because of the age at which you were turned." He ran his lips along the side of Edward's throat. "Mmm… I wonder why Carlisle Cullen really chose to turn you, why he chose you for… a companion."

"He chose me because he was lonely," Edward said, trying to wince, but the bonds held him and he felt his resolve start to weaken.

"Ah, but _why_ he was lonely is, perhaps, lost on you," Muraki murmured, running his fingertips around the edges of the wound in Edward's back. "You are fully aware of your own beauty, but you're old-fashioned enough that you're unaware of just who is drawn to it. That strain of naivety.. it's so rare these days that finding it in a young man excites me…" That oppressive aura which Edward had felt earlier returned, stronger than before and he felt his resolve draining away. Images flooded his mind, images of himself and Bella on their wedding night, the moonlight on the ocean, the bed draped in mosquito netting. Somehow, he realized he was looking down at his own back, as if he were having some sort of out of body experience. And yet while he could see these images as plain as day, he could see the forest floor below him just as clearly, as if the memories formed an acetate overlay.

He felt Muraki's hands sliding lower, past his chest and the flat of his belly, working downward. He tried to ask, "What are you doing?" but all that came out was a thick "Whuuhh?"

"What am I doing?" Muraki chuckled, deep in his throat. "I am offering you the cure for your naivety; I am showing you what older males with certain tastes do with beautiful young men such as you. I am showing you what the world is truly like: stained at tooth and claw with the blood of body and soul."

The clouds overhead broke and the moonlight poured down over them, the silver light darkening and turning crimson. Muraki's shadow fell over him and Edward felt what life force that remained in his body rising out of him in a cloud. He felt it fuse with the being of the predator above him.

Then all went dark and he felt his consciousness dissolve into the void…

Muraki lowered the body to the ground, pushing back the sense of lethargy that filled his being. He rose to his feet, brushing the leaf mold from his knees and adjusting his garments. He still had to dispose of the remains of his prey, which was generally not his usual tactic, the better to alert the attention of the one he desired, the one whose task it was to watch over the dead, but he was not about to take his chances. Sanguinarian vampires were known for their regenerative abilities, and he did not want to risk any… complications. Besides, Inari needed her proof that her mate's killer had paid for his folly with his existence…

* * *

I turned over on the bed, my face to the window. Clouds covered the face of the moon, but light still shone around the edges. The light dimmed; for a moment, I thought the clouds had grown thicker. A slim shadow leaned over me and I felt the weight of a person pressing down on me as they knelt over me on the bed and covered me with their body.

"Edward?" I asked. He replied by leaning over me and pressing his lips to mine. He felt cool to the touch, but his lips felt softer on mine. He lifted himself, running his lips along my jaw and down to my neck. I felt his teeth close gently on the skin at the side of my neck. "Edward, don't… You said you wanted to wait," I said. But he gently laid his fingers on my lips as he removed his mouth from my neck. I felt a wave of pleasure wash through my body. He pushed down the covers and opened the front of my gown before lowering his lips to the pit of my throat, the first of a burning trail of kisses which he traced over every inch of my skin. I reached down to caress his face, but he sensed the movement and caught my wrists gently before he pressed my hands down by my sides. This should have startled me a little, but somehow, I didn't care. The aura that surrounded him left me feeling giddy and tingly all over, as if every nerve in my skin had lit up at once, as if someone caressed every cell in my skin at the same time. My heart hammered in my ears and I panted, my breath coming in short gasps.

I wondered if this is how it would feel when Edward changed me and we could finally, truly enjoy laying together as man and wife, when the clouds broke and the moon rose from behind them. But the silver face of the moon had suddenly turned an angry shade of red, as if the moon was sweating blood. The light revealed the face and form of the man who lay atop me.

He raised himself on his hands and I found I gazed up into Muraki's leering face, his silvery eyes narrowed, his lips snarling back from his teeth in a nasty grin.

"No, this isn't happening," I said, trying to push him away, but he pinned me with one hand.

"Oh, but it is," he said. I tried to crawl out from under him, but he pressed his knee into my hip and raised himself higher as he reached into the shadows for something. When he drew back his hand, he gripped a small scalpel between his fingers, the moonlight glinting on the razor-sharp edge of the blade. His hand plunged toward my chest and I expected him to stab me in the heart, but instead, he made a few small, deft cuts in the surface of my skin, just above my right breast. I barely felt it until the wounds started to sting.

"Your soul now bears my mark, the sign of the red moon, _akatsuki,_ in Japanese; these characters spell it out," he said. "You'll find I am not easy to escape from: nothing can push me out of your mind or your heart, Bella."

"No, get away from me!" I said, trying to twist out of his grasp, but he lowered himself over me and putting his face to my chest, licked away the blood that flowed from where he had cut me.

I thought I heard a voice call my name. He lifted his head, licking a drop of blood delicately from his lips, and turned as if he heard something.

"Hmm, it seems that we have an interloper disrupting our tryst," he said. He rose and covered my eyes with one hand --

\--And then I woke up. Alice and Jasper stood on either side of the bed, looking down at me. "Must have been one hell of a dream," Jasper was saying.

"He was right here," I said, sitting up and looking around.

"Who was?" Alice asked, her brow puckered with worry.

"That doctor who's treating me," I said, looking around.

"Don't tell Edward you were dreaming of Dr. McDreamy or whatever it is in Japanese," Jasper said. His joke, as well as the comforting feeling that seemed to flow from his voice helped me to calm down and put the dream out of my mind.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Something's wrong," Alice said. "Edward hasn't come home yet and it's been hours. He said he was going for a short hunt, but he never takes this long. Bella, when was the last time you saw him?"

"Gee, you sound almost like a detective, Alice," Jasper teased.

"Be serious," she said, but a small smile crossed her face and even I could feel her relax a little.

"I'm not sure how long it's been, but before he left, Edward got a bit huffy with the doctor who's treating me," I said. "But after they both left, I fell right to sleep."

"Well, if he's out hunting, we need to go check the woods," Alice said to Jasper.

I pushed the covers back and sat up. "Let me come with you," I said.

"What? Wait, your ankle is still injured. You'd better stay off it," Jasper said, pointing to the bandages on my ankle. The gentle command in his voice felt hard to resist, but I knew where I had to be.

"Let me go with you, I'll be careful," I said.

Alice and Jasper looked at each other. "You think it's wise?" Jasper asked. "What are you seeing?"

"All I can see is a red moon and a white fox running in a forest," Alice said. "I keep trying to look ahead, but there's something blocking me."

"You need to polish that crystal ball better," Jasper said.

"Stop that," Alice said, smiling a little at his joke. She turned to me and looked me in the eye. "You'll stay out of the woods, promise me?" she said. "No more stairs, either."

"I promise," I said. Alice knelt and opening the locker beside the bed, dug out my clothes and handed them to me. Turning to Jasper, she said, "Jasper, go to the nurse's station and distract them."

"How? My Japanese isn't the best," he said.

"It'll have to work," she said. "The fact that they'll be so busy trying to understand you should be enough of a diversion."

Once Jasper had gone, I dressed quickly, Alice keeping watch around the edge of the curtain that separated my bed from the rest of the room. When I was ready, she helped me up from the bed and let me lean on her shoulder as she led me out into the hallway and to a back entrance.

Jasper met us out front. "I think I may have accidentally insulted one of them about her mother's cooking," he said. "But I tried to be polite about it."

"No more time for jokes," Alice said. To me, she added, "Do you think you can walk?"

"I'll manage if one of you helps me," I said.

"No sooner said than done," Alice said with a smile as she lifted me onto her shoulders.

They sped off into the shadows, finding a way back to the same spot where I'd taken my fall earlier, but careful to avoid open places where we could be seen by any passersby. Alice set me down on the foot of the steps and looked around her, sniffing the air. "Something's burning," she said.

I sniffed the air. "I don't smell anything," I said, then I remembered they could smell things that hadn't reached my nostrils yet.

"I'd say it was someone's bonfire, but it doesn't smell right. Too much smoke," Jasper said. "You stay right here, Bella, we're going to go take a look. Everything's going to be all right, no matter what."

The two of them sped off into the woods, following a hint of smoke I could now just barely smell. I wished that Edward or Alice had changed me sooner, that way I wouldn't have gotten injured in the first place.

I pulled my jacket closer around me: the night had gotten much colder and the wind had started to blow stronger than it had earlier.

That was when I heard footsteps above me, descending the steps. They paused on the landing above me. A spot on my chest prickled and stung of a sudden.

"A fine night for a walk: when the clouds part, it's almost bright enough to see the autumn foliage," a man's voice said above me. Dr. Muraki's voice.

"Oh, yes it is," I said, glad that the darkness hid the blush crossing my face.

"Bella-chan, what are you doing out here? You know you're supposed to be resting," he said, chiding me, as if I were a child. "You shouldn't be out here at a time like this: they say there are spirits in these woods who don't take well to strangers."

"I, uh, needed a breath of fresh air," I said.

He chuckled deep in his throat. "Do you expect me to believe that? You're a bad liar. Come, tell me the truth, child."

"It's really none of your business, doctor," I said. Calling me child was more than I could take: I was a married woman after all.

"Oh, but it is. It is my business to know as much as I can about my patients," he said.

"Well, Alice, one of the family, tried to call me and tell me that Edward hadn't gotten back home and she'd wondered if he'd gone back to check on me. I couldn't take the call because I was asleep, so she and Jasper came to the hospital to check on me," I said. "I wanted to go with them into the forest, but I'm being careful to stay off my foot."

"Mmm, yes, he did take a while, since he was with me for much of that time," he said. Something in his tone hinted he was hiding something, almost as if his words had a double meaning, but for the life of me, I couldn't imagine what he meant. "I offered to buy him a drink as a peace offering for angering him. But do you truly feel safe with a man who would all but attack the physician attending his wife, for a mere slip of the tongue?"

I shrugged. "He's just protective of me. He only wants to keep me safe."

"Oh, no doubt, protecting his pet lamb from any perceived threat whom he suspects would try to come between him and you. How romantic," he said the last with an acidly sarcastic drawl. "I'm curious: why would he become so attached to the likes of you? You're a very ordinary young woman with a mediocre personality, but I suppose that mediocrity makes you less of a target for poachers. Except, perhaps, the most brazen and sadistic."

"I guess it's because we both feel safe together," I said, shrugging.

"Safe? With a creature like him?" he asked, his voice sarcastic.

"He's never done anything to hurt me, not really," I said. But for some reason I thought of the bruises that covered me after my first night with Edward, and all the times that he had warned me that he could hurt me.

"I suppose he's holding back just for your sake, protecting you from worse predators, keeping you for yourself. I can't help thinking of a person on a slimming diet keeping a box of chocolates on the top of their cupboard," he said.

He changed the subject before I could argue that he had it all wrong. "By any chance, have you ever read anything about nukekubi, the vampire-like creatures of legend in this country, Bella-chan?" he asked.

"I read some web pages when I first suspected Edward was a vampire," I said. "I needed to know what he is."

"Then I'm sure you acquainted yourself with their appearance," he said. "But to refresh your memory: By day, they appear to be ordinary humans, except that they bear a ring of red characters around the base of their necks, easy to conceal under a necklace or a high collar." He paused for effect and adjusted his eyeglasses. "But at night, their bodies turn inanimate from the neck down, and their heads detach from their bodies, rolling or bouncing away, in search of human prey."

He took something from behind his back and hurled it down to me. The spherical object bounced once off the steps, then rolled down to rest at my feet.

At that moment, the clouds rolled back from the moon. Light, the deep crimson of fresh blood, shone down on the object, on Edward's head, cut off at the base of the neck with a neat surgical slice. His topaz eyes stared up at me glassily and his jaw hung open, half wrenched from its joints, his canine teeth missing, pulled out by the roots.

"You monster!" I screamed, shaking my fist at him. But he only smirked down at me, narrowing his eyes. The moonlight glinted off his eyes, turning them to pools of red that glittered with an insane light; his glass eye seemed to glow with its own mad inner light. I felt the way a deer must feel when a cougar looks it in the eye before the predator moves in for the kill. I wondered for a moment if the animals that Edward and the rest of the Cullens killed felt the same freezing sense of horror and fear.

"Oh, I won't deny that my skills -- or the application of them -- seem monstrous to the ignorant, but I do so only within reasonable bounds," he said, so casually that it angered me. "Your beloved husband had the misfortune to drink the life from one of the mates of Inari, the fox-kami of fertility and luck. She doesn't take something like that too lightly. Even if you don't believe in the spirits that dwell within all parts of nature, an imbalance still happens when you indiscriminately destroy the creatures who limit the numbers of herbivores and keep them from overgrazing and destroying the plants they need to sustain themselves."

"Edward wouldn't do something like that. He only fed to live," I snapped.

"And there were more efficient ways for him and his clan to have fed. There are such things as getting a donor: I've known more than a few blood-drinkers who resorted to this system."

"But doesn't that put people at risk of dying?" I insisted.

"Only among those who have completely given themselves over to their predatory nature," Muraki said. "And even those who have fully embraced their predator can still control themselves if they remember their duty to nature."

"But Dr. Cullen --"

"Has let his view of nature become clouded by moral codes that rarely apply to it. Once you Westerners come to understand that nature is inherently amoral, you'll stop seeing herd animals as sweet, innocent creatures to be protected and predatory animals as diabolical fiends to be destroyed. A cornered deer, if angered or threatened or frightened, can be just as fierce and violent as a wolf; and wolves themselves hunt only to feed their packs or to defend their territory. Besides, there are other substances just as nourishing if not more so than mere blood, with a lower risk to the donor… or the prey, however one sees them."

I got the feeling he was not just speaking about vampires or predators in general, but about himself. Now I knew why Muraki reminded me of Edward, besides sharing the same pale good looks. He might pass as a mere human, but he was a vampire of a different order, and perhaps a more dangerous sort since he could hide his true nature in plain sight.

He descended the steps and paused on the step above me, still looking me in the eye. He reached out and before I could step back, took my chin in his hand, tilting my face up to his. "Your tears are like pearls in the moonlight," he murmured. I thought for a moment he was going to lean down and kiss me, but I only felt his breath fanning my face, which set my entire body tingling. "If you truly understood these matters, you wouldn't be crying. I don't normally give out romantic advice, but let this be a warning to you: go home to your human family and find a reasonable human man to love and marry. You aren't made of the right matter that would allow you to consort with predators."

I forced myself to tear my gaze from his. I yanked my face from his hand and I snatched up Edward's head.

I ran like the devil was after me. Come to think of it, the devil was after me, or so it seemed. I glanced back, but Muraki only watched me fleeing, his head thrown back as he laughed like a mad scientist in an old movie. I had promised the others that I would avoid the woods, but I had to find Alice and Jasper and warn them that Edward was dead. That a mad vampire had killed him. I bolted down the first forest path I came to and ran like the wind.

The path narrowed as it ascended a hill. I tried to keep to the inner edge, away from the steep drop to the left, but my bad foot went out from under me and I fell headlong into the ravine. My back hit a rock and I felt a sharp pain explode through my body before I blacked out…

* * *

When Tsuzuki and Hisoka returned to their shabby hotel room, they were expecting a courier to have brought the silver stakes they had requested. But they didn't expect to find Tatsumi waiting for them with a brown paper package containing the stakes, each slotted into a holster-like sling to be hidden under their jackets, as well as a couple pairs of protective black gloves.

"I brought the stakes you requested, but it seems you're likely to need some back up from the public security sector," Tatsumi said.

"I think between the two of us, we can handle this: we need to take down only one vampire," Tsuzuki said.

"Just remember, you'll have to wear these protective gloves. Silver isn't as poisonous to shinigami as it is to vampires, but it can still leave a burning sensation in your skin," Tatsumi warned, holding up the gloves.

"That doesn't sound good," Hisoka said, taking one pair of the gloves and pulling them on.

"It's not as bad as it sounds, but it's better to handle the stakes with care," Tsuzuki said, taking the other pair and stuffing them into a pocket of his overcoat.

Tatsumi looked from Tsuzuki to Hisoka incredulously and adjusted his eyeglasses. "Miss Falcone has offered her assistance; this case belongs to the American division as well."

"Aw, and I just got myself into brave vampire hunter mode," Tsuzuki said, taking a bold stance, which would have looked impressive for him if a half pout hadn't crossed his face. Hisoka covered his eyes and groaned, embarrassed with his partner.

"Perhaps you wouldn't mind having her join you, in case that vampire should decide that you smell like a meal, or in case there is a language barrier," Tatsumi said. "Mrs. Cullen's academic records show that she's only just starting to learn Japanese and we know your English isn't quite at conversational level. That's something you'd be wise to improve upon yourself, in case we need to work with the American division again in the near future."

"I can understand it, but I don't speak it very well," Hisoka added.

"Well, uh, in that case, we'd be grateful for her assistance," Tsuzuki said, rubbing the back of his head and glancing away to hide his embarrassment.

"And I believe she's honored to assist you," Tatsumi said. The shadows behind him seemed to gather and a woman in her mid thirties stepped out of them into the light. Her fiery red hair peeped out from under a black fedora worn low on her forehead and a black leather trench coat wrapped her slim figure. She removed a pair of wrap-around shades from her face as she peered up at Tsuzuki with steel-colored grey eyes, the pupils slit-like.

_Her eyes… they're… like his,_ he thought.

She broke eye contact first. "Konnichi-wa," she said, bowing. "Mercy Falcone, Public Security of the American division, at your service."

"Err, hello, I'm Asato Tsuzuki and this is my partner Hisoka Kurosaki," Tsuzuki said, trying not to stare.

"Oh, my eyes? Don't worry: I might look at you like I'm going to drain your soul, but I don't do that," she said. "I might nibble on some stray energy that's drifted off you, if I've been slinging energy spells around, but since I died, I don't need as much as I did when I was alive."

"The Ministry wouldn't have allowed her to become a shinigami if she had willfully taken the life of someone," Tatsumi said, and something in his tone hinted that he would have taken it upon himself to keep her out of the Ministry by any means possible.

She darted an odd look of rebuke at Tatsumi, but her face remained serious, as if she understood his intention. "Well, we're called reapers in America, though it means about the same thing, but that's a whole other discussion." She took on a more business-like tone. "Now, how do you plan to take care of this case?" she asked, relieved to be changing the subject. "I'm ready and willing to act in any capacity you need me for."

"Well, Hisoka and I were going to take out the vampire and since Mrs. Cullen is technically in your district, I was hoping you could either speak to her or interpret for us," Tsuzuki said.

"I'm kind of an act-first-ask-questions-later sort of agent, but I think I can get through to her." She looked sideways at Hisoka. "So this is the young fellow who can read emotions like a book? Good idea for me to act as a buffer then: She's liable to be pretty upset over what we have to do."

"I don't see how anyone can fall in love with something like a vampire," Hisoka grumbled.

"People fall in love with the wrong person all the time," Tsuzuki said, knowingly. "Love doesn't always make much sense." _Myself included,_ he thought, with a cringe he kept care to hide.

"But why would someone with their whole mortal life ahead of them throw that life away on a creature that isn't even alive?" Hisoka asked.

"It's probably because she doesn't love herself enough to let herself feel for someone who can truly care for her and for her welfare and happiness," Miss Falcone said.

"You sound like you know what you're talking about," Tsuzuki observed.

"So do you," Miss Falcone said, looking up at him, her pale eyes warm with compassion.

"So where do we start looking for this vampire?" Hisoka asked, looking toward the door.

"Let's head outside: the energy in this hotel isn't flowing right and it's making me restless," Miss Falcone said.

They stepped out into the darkness, the moonlight starting to break through the rends in the clouds, lighting the street below.

A cold wind blew; Tsuzuki instinctively turned the collar of his overcoat up. "Well, we know the vampire clan has been hunting the local wildlife, so perhaps we should start looking in the forest near the Fushimi Inari shrine," Tsuzuki suggested.

"All right then. Do you have an idea where the Cullens are staying?" she asked.

"We got an address when the Gushoshin tapped into Mrs. Cullen's hospital records," Tsuzuki said. He rummaged in his pocket, pulling out a few empty chip bags and an apple core before he drew out a pad of paper and a stump of a pencil. He jotted an address on it and pulled off the sheet, handing it to Miss Falcone.

She quirked an eyebrow at him, but said nothing as she read the address. "Got it. You boys have fun playing Van Helsing," she said. Taking a palmtop device from her pocket, she typed something into it and stepped out into the shadows.

"Playing what?" Hisoka asked.

"I think she's referring to the vampire hunter in _Dracula_," Tsuzuki said.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Hisoka asked. "About Miss Falcone?"

"Her eyes… You don't think she's somehow connected to _him_…"

"No. I checked: I looked into her spirit; she has some shadows but it's nowhere as dark, nowhere as blackened. If she's killed anyone, it was in the line of duty."

"Well, that's a relief, the last thing we need is a double agent of some kind," Tsuzuki said.

They phased into spirit form in order to save time in reaching the forest where they suspected they would find the vampire. _The vampire…_ Tsuzuki thought. _I can't think of him by his name any more: he's not even really alive. His soul left his body at the moment he was changed from a human to a vampire_.

Once they reached the woods, they phased back into visible form. Hisoka sniffed the air, looking around him, his eyes narrowed.

"You smell that?" he asked.

Tsuzuki drew in a long breath that smelled of smoke and something almost gritty. "Something's burning close by. Doesn't smell like a bonfire or someone's woodstove."

At that moment, two blurs passed by them on the path. "What the hell was that?" Hisoka snapped.

"I don't know, they were moving to fast for me to see them," Tsuzuki said, quickly phasing into spirit form and chasing after the blurred figures.

They caught up with two shadows further down that path, a short girl with spiky black hair and a much taller young with golden-blond hair. Both of them couldn't be out of their early twenties and both had elegantly pale faces with golden-brown eyes.

"Must be two of the Cullen clan, but what are they doing out here?" Tsuzuki said.

"I can sense their fear and concern: I think they're looking for Edward," Hisoka said.

"Well, this is going to make it harder, but we'll have to approach them at some point, might as well be now."

The young strangers must have sensed the presence of the two shinigami, even before Tsuzuki and Hisoka started to phase; they turned, eyes blazing with fear and aggression, their lips curling back from their teeth.

"Miss Cullen, you don't have to get so excited, and I wouldn't try biting my partner or I; we, ah, don't taste very well: we're no more alive than you are," Tsuzuki said, trying to sound disarming.

"Wait, wait, Alice, calm down, I don't think these guys are going to hurt us," Jasper said, pulling Alice back. "They sure don't look aggressive, I mean, heck, one of 'em's just a kid."

"Don't call me a kid," Hisoka muttered.

Miss Cullen calmed down quickly; Tsuzuki felt an oddly calming sensation flowing from her companion, clearly her husband Jasper, as he recalled from the file.

"We didn't mean to sneak up on you like that," Tsuzuki said. "We're shinigami, guardians of death; we're with the Ministry of Hades, and we're looking for Edward Cullen."

"We're looking for him as well: I'm Alice Cullen, and this is my husband Jasper Hale," Alice said. She said this with a friendly smile, but something in her eyes hinted that she still held the both of them in suspicion. _This is going to make it that much harder for us to take out that vampire when we find him, _Tsuzuki thought. _These two probably haven't done anything wrong or at least they haven't done anything to harm Bella Swan. How can I make them understand what Hisoka and will have to do?_

"So, what brought you here and what exactly are you?" Jasper asked.

Tsuzuki shook himself, coming out of the corner of his mind he had retreated into. "We're investigating why Bella Swan's life force has been waning and we're supposed to remove the cause of that drain."

"So what does that have to do with Edward?" Alice asked, still incredulous.

"We need to ask him a few questions that are really for his ears only," Tsuzuki said. He felt Hisoka glaring sideways at him, as if to say, "_That's putting a sugar-coating on what we really have to do_."

"Okay, so does this mean you're some kind of police?" Jasper asked.

"That's one way of describing it," Tsuzuki said.

"Could we see some kind of identification?" Alice asked. "I don't mean to be rude, I'm just finding this a little odd."

"Not a problem," Tsuzuki said, reaching into his breast pocket, and pulling out a crumpled cupcake wrapper. He stuffed that into another pocket and finding his wallet. _Enma help me, don't let them see the silver stake,_ he thought, trying not to glance at the silver stake in its holster, hidden under his coat. He took out his ID and held it out to Alice and Jasper, who both examined it. If either vampire had seen the silver stake, neither of them registered it.

"The Summons Section?" Alice asked, handing back the card. "Who or what are you summoning?"

"Usually, it's our job to help the souls of the recently departed cross over into the afterlife, especially if they died suddenly and under unnatural circumstances, or if something happened that makes it hard for them to cross over," Tsuzuki said.

Alice looked worried. "Bella isn't hurt, is she?"

"No, not at all: another of our agents, from the American division, is looking for her to check on her," Tsuzuki said.

"Well, between the four of us, we should be able to find Edward that much quicker," Jasper said, glancing up the trail. "Let's get going."

The four of them headed deeper into the forest. Hisoka, however, held back from following the two vampires; Tsuzuki paused, waiting for him to catch up.

"We're hitting it off well with these two," Hisoka said in a low voice. "How do you expect them to understand the reason why we're looking for him? Don't expect them to be forgiving when we have to stake him.

"We'll, uh, handle that when it happens," Tsuzuki said. "With a little luck, we'll find him before they do."

"And there's still a chance that we may have to take out two other vampires," Hisoka said. "After we started getting chummy with them. We've only got two stakes, unless Mercy-san happens to show up."

The burning smell grew stronger as the four of them entered a clearing.

"This is that spot where Edward prefers to start his hunts," Alice said.

In the middle of the clearing, they found a heap of cinders, still warm: in their midst, a few coals still smoldered.

"Huh? What's this? The remains of someone's campfire?" Tsuzuki asked. But the spread of the ashes did not suggest a campfire.

Hisoka let out a gasp so sharp that it sounded like a scream and dropped to his knees, his thin arms hugging his chest.

"Whoa, what's wrong there, little guy?" Jasper asked, reaching toward the smaller male's shoulders

"What's wrong with him?" Alice asked, looking up at Tsuzuki.

"Hisoka is empathic: he can read people's feelings and even their minds, or at least the emotions that they're feeling at the moment he reads them and the memories they tie into," Tsuzuki said. "He can even pick up residual emotions in a place where someone has recently felt strong emotions."

Jasper tried to put a reassuring arm around Hisoka's shoulders, but Hisoka pulled away, as if his touch burned him.

"Careful, he's really sensitive to being touched, especially when he's like this," Tsuzuki warned.

"Hey, hey, Hisoka, I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to give you a hand," Jasper said.

"He was here…" Hisoka said, his voice harsh with pain. "He killed him right here… set him on fire. I can feel him dying the final death…" Tsuzuki did not have to ask who had done this: Hisoka's tone gave him all the evidence he needed. _I suppose in a way this lets us off the hook trying to stake Edward now,_ he thought. _But this probably puts us in debt to someone I'd rather we weren't indebted to._

"Edward?" Alice asked. Hisoka could only nod; Jasper tried again to put an arm around Hisoka, who did not resist this time, though Tsuzuki saw him wince slightly. He must have picked up some of Jasper's compassion and his own fear.

"Muraki did this… I can feel him," Hisoka murmured.

Alice looked up at Tsuzuki. "Who is he talking about, Tsuzuki-sama? Who could have done this to Edward?"

"I can't really tell you much about this, since it has to do with some unresolved issues in some of our cases," Tsuzuki said, "But there is a killer we've been tracking for some time now."

"Then you'll have to let us help you catch him," Alice said. "Edward wouldn't want us to let his killer go unpunished."

"I appreciate your concern, but it's not that simple," Tsuzuki said. "If you got involved, Muraki would likely go after you or the rest of your family. He's more than what he seems: he's a practitioner of dark magic and he's a very powerful energy vampire." He looked up at the sky at the moon. "Powerful enough that when he makes a kill and takes the life force of his victim, the face of the moon turns as red as blood. He cursed Hisoka with a slow death that lasted three years and even blacked out the memory of what caused it."

"Leave this to the professionals and consider him armed and dangerous, I get it," Jasper said, wryly. Hisoka had stopped trembling and now stood up, looking away and shrugging Jasper's arm from his shoulders.

"Thanks," he murmured.

"Hey, what's with the enthusiasm?" Jasper teased. Hisoka only gave him a mildly withering look in reply.

"Ah, Hisoka's like that to everyone, even me, and we've been partners for a few years now," Tsuzuki said. Growing serious again, he added, "Do you want us to escort you back to your apartment, Alice-chan?"

"I think you'd better, if this Muraki is as dangerous as you say he is. We'll have to catch up with Bella and warn her." she said. She looked toward the ashes. "And we'll have to wait till morning to collect this…" She dropped her gaze. Jasper stood and approached her, putting his arms around her, murmuring to her in English.

"Wait, I don't mean to interrupt, but isn't Bella in the hospital?" Tsuzuki asked.

"She was, but when we went to check on her and see if she knew where Edward had gotten to, she insisted on coming with us," Jasper said. "We left her on the steps to a shrine not too far from here."

"We'll have to find her before he does," Tsuzuki said.

Alice looked down at the ashes again, then she suddenly winced. "Oh God," she murmured, pressing her hands to her forehead.

"What?" Tsuzuki asked.

"She has visions of things that haven't happened yet or which may happen," Jasper said. To Alice, he said, in a low gentle voice, "It's all right, love; tell me what you saw and let me help you bear it."

"It's Bella… she's fallen down an embankment of some kind," Alice said.

"I thought we told her not to come looking for us," Jasper said.

"Something probably startled her, you know how she is," Alice said.

"Can you see where she is?" Tsuzuki asked.

"She's close by, on this very trail," Alice said, and bolted off into the trees, so fast she blurred into the shadows.

"Hey, catch up with me, slowpoke," Jasper called and ran after her.

Hisoka looked up at Tsuzuki. "Do you think he had something to do with her vision?"

"It would not surprise me," Tsuzuki said and phased to spirit form.

_To be Continued…_


End file.
